Movies You’ve Probably Never Heard of #17

They Came From Beyond Space (1967)

“The battle for power has began” or so say the optimistic marketing people in the Amicus production office back in 1967. A more logical tagline would read “The battle for a field in Cornwall has began“. You also have to wonder, as my good chum (MarkTalksTelly) pointed out, where exactly ‘beyond space’ is? I went to Eastleigh once (Hampshire UK, shit hole), I’ll assume it’s like that. So what are ‘they’ up to? Well they are inhabiting the bodies of horny English people and building secret underground bunkers and rockets (which they launch through a lake, a lake only ever seen in miniature form). Our American hero is immune to their nasty space-zombie mind controls due a metal plate in his head. We’re constantly reminded of this plot device through a hilariously convoluted subplot involving his love for classic cars (classic cars in 1967 were essentially Flintstones cars). So metal plate guy and his brilliant Asian sidekick go about thwarting these nasty aliens (and their Cornish field) by building amazing homemade rayguns and night-vision style goggles. It’s all rather silly, but pretty enjoyable. Especially when you get the kind of dialogue you only find in old British Sci-Fi. Such as a sexy blonde seductress trying to entice our hero with the line “I’ll make you a cup’a tea (sexy pause).., with sugar (emphasis on the sugar)”. All this nonsense is set to a non-more-groovy jazz soundtrack. Cool man.

So who among you mere mortals have had the privilege of crossing swords with this mastery? Come on, come forward if you’re man enough.

The Dark Knight Rises Trailer and Prologue

Deadly Movies | News

Expect a lot of Batman vs Bane in the coming TDKR trailer

So Variety (or at least Variety’s Jeff Sneider) is reporting that the full length trailer for ‘The Dark Knight Rises‘ will be attached to ‘Sherlock Holmes 2‘ (also a WB release which makes sense) from December 16th. And if that’s not enough of a festive Bat-treat for you, on December 21st, a mere 5 days later, you’ll be able to see a 6 minute prologue to TDKR ahead of ‘Mission Impossible 4‘ (a revenue gift for that movie) in IMAX theatres only. So, all this news begs for some serious bat-pondering.

The Trailer: This past summer saw Nolan treat us to a teaser trailer, one that gave very little away in terms of plot or new footage. It did feature some fleeting images of Bane, Batman, and Commissioner Gordon. It also hinted heavily at the theme of destruction, anarchy, despair, and social breakdown. Expect more of the same, but on a grander scale. I think we’ll start to get a true understanding of the scale of the this movie which, given the HUGE shooting schedule and excessive locations used to depict Gotham City (London, New York, Los Angeles, and Pittsburgh), should be beyond anything we’ve ever seen in a comic-book movie.

The corresponding trailer debut for ‘The Dark Knight’ back in December 2007 was essentially all about Batman and The Joker. It completely neglected (on purpose) the Harvey Dent / Two-Face story arch. I’d imagine It’ll be the same this time around. Expect a lot of Bane & The League of Shadows footage and plot points. I think Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman will certainly be shown, no doubt in full costume and in action, but her motivates and larger role may well be withheld. We’ll also get some clips and soundbites from the supporting cast: Gary Oldman’s Commissioner Gordon, Michael Caine’s Alfred, Morgan Freeman’s Lucios Fox, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s cop John Blake, and Marion Cotillard’s mysterious Miranda Tate. Don’t expect to see anything of (or from, in the character sense) the rumoured plot twists and surprises.

Things to look out for in the inevitable final 30-seconds flourish of shots: The new, and technically advanced Bat-cave, any new Bat-vehicles (yes I know most of you know there is a new one but some don’t), a rebuilt Wayne Manor, Catwoman in all her glory, Batman on the run from the police, hints at Bane’s origin, new gadgets, and Arkham Asylum.

The Prologue: Like ‘The Dark Knight‘ prologue this will undoubtably be the opening six minutes of the movie followed by 30 seconds or so of quick shots (many from the trailer and some new). I’d imagine that the prologue will address the origin of Bane. Remember that ‘The Dark Knight‘ prologue was ALL about The Joker, aside from the shot montage, it featured no Batman at all. However I’d expect to see a little more of the Bat this time around as Bane certainly doesn’t have the same cultural resonance as Mr J (for the general audience at least). So I’m going to suggest that we’ll see some Batman on the run stuff, continuing on from where ‘The Dark Knight‘ left off.

Whatever the outcome (and I may be very wrong!) we’re in for a real Batman feast before Christmas. Following on from Batman Year One and Arkham City, It’s been a great year for Batman fans so far, and that’s without the movie.

Update: Speaking to Empire, Chris Nolan confirmed the following about the Prologue. “[It’s] basically the first six, seven minutes of the film, [and will serve as] an introduction to Bane, and a taste of the rest of the film.”

(Ass) Busting Makes Him Feel Good

Deadly Movies Cameos | Ron Jeremy in ‘Ghostbusters’ (1984)

Perhaps the greatest movie cameo pub trivia of all time? Probably. Porn legend of over 1,200 titles, Ron Jeremy, can indeed be spotted in the final cut of ‘Ghostbusters‘. If the comedy classic isn’t full of enough pop culture icons you can add the fat moustached man to the list. The cameo (ok not strictly a cameo as he was a background actor at the time) occurs around an hour into the movie after the EPA have shut down the containment facility. Along with his fellow onlookers, Jeremy and his lip-ferret can be seen standing left of screen behind a police barricade and in front of Ecto-1. ‘Man Behind Barricade‘ even has his own, albeit incomplete,  IMDB character bio page. So there you have it; It’s not like Ron needed even more man points, but he gets them for this.

The Pumpkins of the Halloween Franchise

What do you mean you want more nonsensical Halloween trivia? Fine how about this.., Here’s a list of all the pumpkin motifs used in the original series of films (1978 – 2002) opening credits. Oh yes Deadly Movies actually bothered to do this, just for you:

Halloween (1978): The ‘looks a bit like Sloth from The Goonies‘ pumpkin

Halloween 2 (1981): The ‘Joaquin Phoenix‘ pumpkin (with cool skull inside when in splits in half)

Halloween 3 (1982): The ‘we’re so edgy with our 80s computer graphics‘ pumpkin (now looking like something my nephew would make on Microsoft Paint and I’d have to pretend it was good)

Halloween 4 (1988): The ‘fuck this we’re doing something different so here’s a fat hillbilly scarecrow sitting on a tractor‘ pumpkin.

Halloween 5 (1989): The ‘Swiss director edgy opening credits with jaunty angles‘ pumpkin

Halloween The Curse of Michael Myers (aka part 6, 1995): Sadly no pumpkin in the opening credits.

Halloween H20 (1998): The ‘Self referential, Scream style, fake kill sequence‘ pumpkin

Halloween Resurrection (aka The Night Michael Myers Died, 2002): No pumpkin.

Do You Remember When..,

.., Rick Rosenthal had Busta Rhymes Kung Fu Kick Michael Myers?

Rick Rosenthal and Busta Rhymes

Tis the season to celebrate all things Halloween and Michael Myers. But take a moment to recall when Rick Rosenthal had two stabs (no pun intended) at the Halloween franchise and failed both times. Rosenthal can be forgiven for his ‘Halloween 2‘ (1981), he was very young and it was only his second time in the hot seat. He likely felt the smokey, cigarette breath of John Carpenter on his neck, and delivered a safe, if unforgivably boring sequel to the seminal classic.

However Mr Rosenthal can never be forgiven for what he did 21 years later with his ‘Halloween Resurrection‘, a cluster fuck of a movie that promptly put an end to that chapter in the Halloween legacy. This is the man who dragged Michael Myers through the pop culture dirt by making a Big Brother, reality show, Halloween movie. You can imagine the creative meeting: “Halloween fans will relate to reality TV and R&B stars!” Yay. And then it happened. Michael Myers career low point. Getting kung-fu kicked by Busta Rhymes. Who can ever forget the imortal lines “Hey Mikey! Happy Fuckin’ Halloween!” and “Trick or treat, motherfucker!“. Sigh, yawn.., Urgh. This horribly misjudged and misguided film managed to make a mockery of Michael Myers.., the shape, the boogeyman.

So this Halloween remember, while you bask in the glory of John Carpenters Halloween, play drinking games to some of the solid genre sequels, debate the merits of H2O, and argue vigorously over Rob Zombie’s efforts.., Busta Rhymes and Rick Rosenthal aren’t invited.

Top 5 Movies of the Halloween Franchise

IDeadly Movies | Top 5’s

The Halloween franchise is a strange and mysterious beast. Yet it has some absolute gems to offer the horror universe. With ten films in all (one non-cannon film, one part 7 that wants to be a part 3, one prequel-remake, and one sequel to the remake) it’s difficult to know what to watch and when. Deadly Movies is always here to lend a guiding hand to such quandaries. So here are the Top 5 Halloween films that Deadly Movies consider the cream rising to the top of a Dr Loomis cup of coffee:

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The Thing (prequel): Perfectly complimentary to the John Carpenter classic

Deadly Movies Reviews | The Thing (2011)

‘Who Goes There‘ the 1938 novella by John W Campbell Jr has a had a huge impact on horror movie history, inspiring the likes of ‘Alien‘ and being directly interpreted in ‘The Thing: From Another World‘ (1951) and It’s 1982 remake John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing‘. Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen Jr adds his 2011 interpretation, but be under no illusion, this is an unashamed prequel (and love letter) to Carpenter’s movie.

A Kiss Can Be Even Deadlier if you Mean it.

Deadly Movie Connections | Halloween 2011

I hate ‘Halloween Resurrection‘ with a passion. It’s such a misguided movie. It gets just about everything wrong. It gave nothing to movie goers, horror fans, and worse of all, the loyal Halloween fan base. In short, it was a disaster of a movie. Saying that there is one moment worthy of discussion. Jamie Lee Curtis reprises her franchise role as Laurie Strode for the forth and final time, one for the pay-cheque, and two because she specifically wanted to be killed off. Her send off is actually quite decent amongst the rest of the movie’s visual diarrhoea; Before she plummets to her death at the hands of her brother, she plants a kiss right on that famous Captain Kirk mask of his (see above).

Granted this is slightly incestuous, but it’s also kind of historically poetic (Cleopatra V, Cleopatra VII, Caligula etc), and more so (and way more likely in the filmmakers minds) it harkened back to a on-set picture from John Carpenter’s original ‘Halloween‘ (Left) where Jamie Lee is seen grabbing a kiss with Nick Castle (The Shape aka Michael Myers) with mask still on. At the time, of course, this had little to no significance as the narrative swerve of Michael and Laurie being related wouldn’t surface until 1981s ‘Halloween 2‘. Yet, looking back, It’s an undeniably fascinating image when viewed through the years of pop culture horror history which preceded it.

 

The Many (often stupid) Faces of Michael Myers: PART 2

Deadly Movies | Halloween 2011

Deadly movies continues its look at over 30 years of Horror dominance by the pop-cult icon who has come to define this time of the year; Michael Myers. Last week we took a look at Michael circa 1978 through 1995 . This week we move forward into the super-budget (for the Halloween franchise) movies of the late 90s and 2000s, including of course, those ever so debated Rob Zombie H-remakes.

The Many (often stupid) Faces of Michael Myers: PART 1

Deadly Movies | Halloween 2011

Michael Myers; the ultimate boogeyman? No doubt. Hipster fasionista? Maybe (who knows what he gets up to for the rest of the year). Purveyor of facial continuity? No. Like a lady doesn’t wear the same dress two nights in a row, Michael Myers won’t be seen dead in the same infamous William Shatner mask for more than about five minutes before a nonsensical change is in order. Join Deadly Movies in a journey through the many faces of Michael Myers (part 1).

1: Halloween (1978), aka El Clásico

The classic Myers mask. Ideal in every way. The simplicity of painting a replica William Shatner mask white and hollowing out the eyes a-little, proved a master stroke in creating an icon of horror. The eye sockets allow for just enough recess of the actors eyes, the hair is just unkept enough, and there’s just the right amount of definition in the cheek bones and pout to convey chilling emotionless. So simple in fact, It begs the question; Why was this SO hard to recapture and recreate for the next 25 years?

It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Deadly Movies | Halloween 2011

Happy October everyone. Keep an eye on Deadly Movies during the course of October for as much Halloween 2011 goodies as I can shove into your trick or treat sacks. And of course there will be an extra special treat come the great day itself. You can check out Deadly Movies Halloween Moviethon from last halloween here – 8 movies across 8 decades and genres.

Do You Remember When..,

.., The Batman ’89 Poster Made an Unscheduled Appearance In ‘Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan’ (1989)?

Oh yeah It’s true.., A massive electronic Time Square billboard ad for Warner Bros 1989 modern classic ‘Batman‘ pops up in the 8th entry into the ‘Friday the 13th‘ series of the same year. Notoriously Friday 8 barely lives up to it’s ‘Takes Manhattan’ mantra, delivering only a handful of shots (and minutes) that are actually shot on location in New York City. To be fair NYC filming permits cost way more than any 80s Friday budget could ever afford. So they filmed most of the scenes on a boat and anything else that was supposed to be The Big Apple was either shot on a sound stage or in Vancouver BC. But if you’re going to blow your tiny budget on something it may as well be on a few glorious crane-shots of Jason Voorhees ascending into the bright lights of Time Square. During one such budget-blowing sweeping crane-shot the Batman logo gets a huge chunk of screen time as, of course, it was due for release the same year (and what a year ‘Die Hard‘ ‘Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade‘, ‘Back to the Future 2‘ and ‘Ghostbusters 2‘ to boot). A little extra free marketing for WB, whose campaign of blitzing every blank space with the infamous yellow/gold Bat-logo was in overdrive.

So there you have it. The horror film that delivers not only Kane Hodder’s Jason actually In Manhattan, but also an advert for Tim Burton’s Batman, and a kid who strangely looks a hell of a lot like English pro-footballer Michael Owen.

Michael Owen (of Football/Soccer fame) & Scott Reeves (of Friday Part 8)

Mass Hysteria: Ghostbusters gets theatrical re-release this Halloween

Deadly Movies | News

Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd

Ahhhh Yeeaaahhhhhh. This Halloween one the most beloved fanboy movies gets a theatrical release for the first time since 1984. ‘Ghostbusters‘ (or Ghost Busters as it was actually written back in the day) will be screened in 500 cinemas across the US, as well as limited numbers in Canada (woo-hoo) and select International markets (I’m assuming the UK will feature in this) on October 13th, 20th, and 27th. There’s no details yet as to which cinema chains and cities will be the lucky recipients.

Although it’s not the full blown theatre run many would have loved It’s still a great opportunity to revisit the movie on the big screen, which, up until now, has only been achievable via the awful 35mm print that does the rounds at festivals. Hopefully Sony will be treating us to a lovingly restored print without the sound and picture quality that have dogged not only the existing 35mm reels, but also the DVD and Blu-ray releases. Oh, and it’s worth noting that this may well be a toe-in-the-water test by Sony to see how much money is left in the ‘Ghostbusters‘ product while considering the green light for ‘Ghostbusters 3‘. You’d have to assume that huge returns on this limited release would force Sony’s hand. Whether or not that’s a good thing remains to be seen.

To see the full press release visit PR Newswire